Social inequalities, advanced maternal age, and birth weight. Evidence from a population-based study in Spain.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether advanced maternal age (≥40 years) is linked to an increased likelihood of low or high birth weight among native and foreign-born mothers giving birth in Spain. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a novel database provided by the Spanish National Statistics Office which links the 2011 Census with information on individual births (2011-2015) from the Vital Statistics (Natural Movement of the Population). First, multinomial logistic regression models were used to estimate the potential association between maternal age and the likelihood of having a baby with low or high birth weight. Second, average adjusted predictions of giving birth to children with low, high, and adequate weight for the origin and the maternal age at birth were also calculated. RESULTS: Findings indicate that women with advanced maternal age showed an increased probability of giving birth to low birth weight infants. Conversely, mothers aged below <30 years had an elevated risk for high birth weight infants. When considering maternal migratory status, the findings were mixed. On one hand, foreign-born mothers showed a higher likelihood of delivering infants with high birth weight; on the other, they displayed a lower risk of low birth weight among newborns in comparison to Spanish natives. CONCLUSIONS: The study addresses two key aspects. First, it highlights the increased risk of low birth weight in mothers delivering at an advanced age. Second, it emphasizes the importance of accounting for maternal migratory status when investigating the association between age at birth and birth weight outcomes among immigrant mothers.

Impact of Socio-economic Status on Low Birthweight: Decomposing the Differences Between Natives and Immigrants in Spain.

In this population-based study, we explored the relationships between immigration, socio-economic status (SES), and perinatal outcomes. We quantified the effects of SES on birthweight disparities between native and immigrant mothers in Spain. We obtained birth and SES data from the 2011 census and administrative registers for years 2011-2015. The associations between origin, statuses, and the likelihood of low birthweight were estimated using logistic regressions. Fairlie's nonlinear extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method was applied to identify the extent to which the differences in birthweight between groups corresponded to socio-economic composition or to rates. Our results showed that African and Latin American mothers exhibited advantage in the perinatal outcomes over native mothers [odds ratio (OR) 0.75; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.63-0.90 and OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.65-0.82, respectively]. Decomposition analyses revealed that such advantage was not affected by the lower positions within the socio-economic structure that African and Latin American populations occupied.

Expected Lifetime in Different Employment Statuses: Evidence From the Economic Boom-and-Bust Cycle in Spain.

This article analyses the impact of the recent economic crisis on the expected time spent in different employment statuses in Spain. Using data from the Economically Active Population Survey and life tables, we estimate the expected time in work, unemployment, retirement, and other types of economic inactivity during the economic boom-and-bust cycle. Differences in expected years of life spent in different employment statuses are decomposed into effects of mortality and employment behavior. Our results show that men's working life expectancy is much more exposed to economic fluctuations. The impact of the ebbs and flows of the business cycle among women is mitigated by the long-term female trend of growing participation in the labor market associated with the increasing educational attainment of women. In addition, the improvement in mortality only partially contributes to gains in time spent in each status, while the main effects correspond to changes in labor market participation.

Seeding the gender revolution: Women's education and cohort fertility among the baby boom generations.

In Europe and the United States, women's educational attainment started to increase around the middle of the twentieth century. The expected implication was fertility decline and postponement, whereas in fact the opposite occurred. We analyse trends in the quantum of cohort fertility among the baby boom generations in 15 countries and how these relate to women's education. Over the 1901-45 cohorts, the proportion of parents with exactly two children rose steadily and homogeneity in family sizes increased. Progression to a third child and beyond declined in all the countries, continuing the ongoing trends of the fertility transition. In countries with a baby boom, and especially among women with post-primary education, this was compensated for by decreasing childlessness and increasing progression to a second child. These changes, linked to earlier stages of the fertility transition, laid the foundations for later fertility patterns associated with the gender revolution.